Il Po delle Colline

The Po of the Hills - Chivassese Area

Church frontals, colonnades, sometimes ancient rural buildings are united in the name of these ancient forms of life. Here and there, among the red bricks of the frontispiece, clear sandstone slabs stand out. On the latter, the shells forming them shine white.

Wandering, let's reach the Province of Asti. The narrow roads going up and down the hills on this slope cross the areas of the characteristic Freisa and Malvasia vineyards.In Albugnano, we will find Santa Maria di Vezzolano Abbey. Very beautiful.We reach it from above, following a road bordered with Populus pyramidalis. Not small, but secluded and moving. The dividing wall cutting the nave is very particular, a series of figures engraved in the limestone and decorated with enamel by the lively popular religiousness. The architectural style characterizing it is the Romanesque Astigiano style. The same decorations, the same coping, single-lancet windows, arches, two-color vaulting ribs are reproduced in the whole area, reaching the river Po with S. Pietro a Brusasco, S. Sebastiano da Po parish church, and S. Fede a Cavagnolo. The latter, of legendary Carolingian origins, was built before the year 1000. The contrasts of the small cloister are exciting. The particular acoustics of the church gives the opportunity to perform choirs and pieces of ancient music. Not by chance, like Staffarda Abbey, it belongs to the circuit of itinerant choral music concerts held within the event "musica instrumentum coeli".

S. Fede is worth a visit. Built among the hills, next to the main road, concealed by the big building used for retreats and congresses by the Marist Fathers, owners since 1895. Of the abbey founded in 1100 by the Benedictines of Conques only a tiny church with a wonderful Romanesque-style portal remains. The place is silent, surrounded by meadows, small woods, and scattered farmsteads. It includes the most beautiful Romanesque-style portal of Piedmont, a series of columns and small columns, zoomorphic figures, plant volutes and shoots, monsters, human figures, and geometric shapes.Another Romanesque-style church, the church of S. Pietro a Brusasco is a bit wasted in the cemetery. The most interesting detail consists of the apse decorated with sandstone little columns.